1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method for monitoring the course of therapy of a patient to be therapeutically treated, of the type wherein at least one information value that requires a therapeutic and/or diagnostic measure and that is a direct or indirect measure of the course of the therapy is registered continuously or in time intervals, and to which at least one comparison value to be compared thereto or to a calculated value determined based on the information value is allocated, wherein an alarm signal is emitted given a inadmissible deviation from the comparison value by the information value or the calculated value and is detected in the course of the comparison, and whereby the comparison value is varied dependent on the course of the therapy and is adapted to the course of the therapy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When one or various health-related values or parameters of a patient lie outside a defined normal range, then an attempt is made to set this value or this parameter of the patient to a target range that usually corresponds to this normal range by means of a suitable, targeted therapy. An example is a patient with high blood pressure. The health-related value in this case would be blood pressure, measurable in a simple way, that must be lowered so that it lies in a desired, target range. This phase, which is usually called the setting phase, can be time-limited; the monitored value or values should have reached the target range no later then the end of the setting phase. When the patient has been set, then the values are monitored in the following maintenance phase.
When the values leave a defined value range during the setting or maintenance phase, which can be acquired by comparing the registered value or parameters to comparison values defining the value range, then a change in the treatment method as well as further measures such as, for example, diagnostics, etc., can become necessary. When the registered value changes toward the positive, i.e. when an improvement occurs (therapeutically positive effect), then no disadvantage arises for the patient. When, however, the value changes in a negative way, then a responsible person or entity, for example a physician, must be made aware of this. An alarm signal must thus be emitted that indicates a negative condition. Rigid alarm limits are employed in known systems. This, however, frequently leads to false alarms or to an absence lack of alarms when an unstable system adjusts itself to a stable value. For example, such a method or system is utilized in intensive medicine for stationary treatment, whereby an automatic monitoring of critical vital parameters is undertaken.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,907 discloses a method with the features initially cited. Deviations of the registered information value from a comparison value can be acquired with this method, and the physician located on site can be notified during a visit, and the physician has the possibility of also taking information values registered temporally earlier into the comparison. Further, the physician has the possibility of modifying the comparison value when the physician interacts with the patient.